NFL's Derrick Coleman, who is deaf, inspires on and off the field

A television commercial starring Seattle Seahawk’s
fullback Derrick Coleman is the latest Internet sensation. Coleman is the only athlete in NFL history to
play offense, despite the fact he is legally deaf.

Now, he’s getting ready to break
one more barrier -- the Super Bowl.

When the Seahawks take on the San Francisco 49ers this
weekend, no one will be paying better attention than Coleman.

“I have to be aware,” he told CBS News’ Bill Whitaker. “I
have to be focused more than everybody else.”

Diagnosed with profound hearing loss, Coleman relies on
lip-reading and his own unique way of communicating with the quarterback.

"He knows to look at me if he makes an audible at
the line of scrimmage,” said Coleman. “He knows just tell everybody and just
turn back at me one more time and he'll tell me the play."

It's the way he's always played the game.

He told Whitaker that he’s “capable of doing what
everybody else can do,” despite his hearing loss.

“You can't use your problem as an excuse,” he said. “Because
you use an excuse, you're not going to get to your dream. “

He was taught that philosophy at an early age. To really
know Coleman’s story you have to meet the parents -- his mother, May Hamlin and
father, Derrick Coleman, Sr.

"You feel that uncertainty, that fear as a fear as a
parent, you know, that, is my child going to be OK," said Coleman, Sr..

His mother told Whitaker that Coleman was “definitely
teased, he was bullied” and kids would call him “four-ears."

“My mom always said people who make fun of you and are
trying bring you down - they're already down. They're trying to bring you to
their level,” said Coleman.

These days Coleman wears a skullcap to keep his hearing
aids in place under his helmet, but as a kid, he had to improvise.

"I took a pair of my pantyhose and I cut the pantyhose
and tied the top of it and I said, ‘Let's see if this works and if this
holds them in,’ and lo and behold, it worked,” said Hamlin.

Coleman said that a lot of people tell him his football
career started with pantyhose and he says that he responds by saying, “Everybody
has their story and that just happened to be mine.”

By the time he reached high school in southern California,
it was Coleman’s athletic ability, not his disability, that garnered
attention.

“I thought ‘Wow this kid, he can play football,’” said
his father. “I would be running up and down the field right alongside with him, so
at that point you start to feel it, you're like - he has something."

Despite his college stats - he rushed for 1,700 yards and
scored 19 touchdowns for the University of Los Angeles - he was passed over in
the NFL draft.

He was later invited to try out for the Seahawks.

“A bad thing happened, I didn't get drafted. Well, there's
an opportunity right after that to go prove to them - prove them wrong that
they should have drafted me,” Coleman said. “They should have gotten me."

Coleman told Whitaker that he’s “proving it now,” but he still
has a “long way to go.”

Coleman is featured in a new Duracell commercial that has
racked up over 4 million views in only five days.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said the ad is inspiring and
he's already seen Coleman’s positive impact on others.

"I've seen Derrick talk to kids before that have the
same kind of issues ... and he's an extraordinary model,” said
Carroll. “And he's got a great message."

Coleman told Whitaker that the Super Bowl is “within
reach.”

“That's why we're going to work hard all week,” he said. “That's
the Vince Lombardi trophy that I could touch right there you know - not many
people get a chance to do that."